Google is rolling out Android Pay, a one-touch payment app on Android devices, in more than 1 million locations in the United States.

The payment service is designed for Android devices with near-field communication (NFC) technology and Google's KitKat 4.4+

Existing users of Google Wallet app can access Android Pay through an update, while new users can download it from Google Play store in the next few days.

The company said the payment service could be used at stores operated by companies including Aeropostale, Macy's, GameStop and Staples.

Writing in its blog, Google said that Android Pay will be made available in more locations over the next few days and more features will be added to it in the coming months.

Android Pay will support credit and debit cards on payment networks of American Express, Discover Financial Services, MasterCard and Visa and cards issued by banks such as Bank of America and US Bank, among others.

Google said Citigroup and Wells Fargo would also be added to the list in the next few days.

As part of security, the service is supported by the industry standard "tokenization" card-security service. Tokenisation service substitutes random numbers for a user's credit card details when a merchant transmits transaction data, reducing the risk of online theft.

The app will come preinstalled on new NFC-enabled phones from wireless carriers AT&T, T-Mobile US and Verizon Communications.

It is unclear if we will see it in the EU soon, but if it works in the US then chances are it could cause Apple Pay some serious headaches.

Well at least somebody took note of Apple’s arrogant habit of ignoring court rulings and the shiny-happy-overpricing company is now to pay for Samsung’s legal expenses in the UK.

Apple could not prove Samsung copied the iPad with its tablet designs but that didn’t stop it from posting a public statement that the court found “false and misleading”. The statement was posted on Apple’s UK site but cited international court rulings that portrayed Samsung’s gear as “uncool” copies. Apple has since removed it but the statement allegedly racked up more than 1 million hits by then.

UK Court of Appeal’s Sir Robin Jacob said the lawyer fees to be awarded against Apple should be on indemnity basis. He pointed out Apple’s conduct “warranted such an order.”

Additionally, Apple is found to have added “false matter” to its statement, carefully implying that comparisons of Apple and Samsung gear were of actual devices rather than patents. “By this statement Apple was fostering the false notion that the case was about the iPad. And that the Samsung product was “not as cool” as the iPad”, the judge said.

The judge accused Apple of comments that caused much confusion, suggesting that the UK court’s decision is not in line with the rest of the world. The judge’s statement further reads:“The reality is that wherever Apple has sued on this registered design or its counterpart, it has ultimately failed. (…) Apple’s additions to the ordered notice clearly muddied the water and the message obviously intended to be conveyed by it”.

After a five year court battle over Unreal Engine 3, a judge has awarded Epic Games $4.45 Million. Sources have told the Escapist magazine that Human developer Silicon Knights will have to pay Epic Games $4.45 million in damages.

Silicon Knights hoped to make $54 million from suing Epic. Instead it owes them a lot of cash. The ruling followed two recent case milestones, neither of which had foreshadowed much hope for Silicon Knights.

Last week, the court ruled that due to an invalid expert testimony, no claim against Epic could be awarded more than a dollar in recompense. All claims of fraud, negligent misrepresentation, unfair competition, and unfair and deceptive trade practices previously levied were dismissed outright.

Epic remained tight-lipped regarding the specifics of its counterclaims since the announcement of their filing in 2007. Most of the claims centered around copyright infringement of the Unreal Engine 3's code.

Silicon Knights' initial lawsuit depended on the fact that Epic had misrepresented the engine, forcing it's developers to build a better one from scratch. Epic claimed that during this time, Silicon Knights had full access to the Unreal Engine 3's code, and may have infringed upon it while reconstructing the core of Too Human. It looks like the Judge believed them.

Good news for the State of Rhode Island, 38 Studios has cut a check to the state and it cleared. Bad news is that it still hasn’t paid its employees yet. Worse news is that the state has no intention of giving the studio any additional funding so it is going to need funding from an outside source in order to make it till the June 20th, 2013 launch of the MMO project that the studio has been working on called Project Copernicus.

The developer has released what can be best described as a “sizzle reel” showing of the MMO game known as Project Copernicus. What is interesting is that Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee says that Project Copernicus will launch in June of 2013.

Not that we are judging here, but June 20th of 2013 is a long way off and in order to make that deadline, you are going to need to pay developers and in order to pay developers you are going to need money. Right not 38 Studios does not have the money to meet payroll and these folks are not going to work for free on this till June 20th of 2013 hoping that everything comes together.

Sources we have spoken will say that it will be difficult to get the kind of funding in place that it is necessary to finish the game by June of 2013, but it is possible. We suspect however with such a compressed time frame it could be much more difficult than leaders at 38 Studios think, but we will just have to wait and see how this saga unfolds.

Carrol County police’s search for a 62-year-old turned into somewhat of a humanitarian feat as Sheriff Williams ended up paying $20 for a man’s phone bill before being able to use the cell signal to locate him.

Apparently, Verizon’s operator refused to connect the signal unless the Sheriff was willing to chip in for the bill. After some discussion, Sheriff Williams gave in and “funded” the search, finding the unconscious man.

It's always nice to see telcos care the same as banks and insurance companies. Brings tears to our eyes, really.

]]>NewsMon, 14 May 2012 10:48:48 +0200Apple may pay dividends first time since 1995https://fudzilla.com/news/26403-apple-may-pay-dividends-first-time-since-1995
https://fudzilla.com/news/26403-apple-may-pay-dividends-first-time-since-1995

To spill the beans at upcoming conference

Apple's announced conference is scheduled for 13:00 GMT today and the company is expected to reveal what it will do with the $98 billion it's sitting on.

Recent comments by Apple's CEO Tim Cook suggested that the company may pay dividends to shareholders, which would be the first time since 1995. Already the year after, Apple posted a net loss of $816 million.

Speaking at an annual shareholder meeting, Cook noted that the cash is more than they need to run a company. Analysts claim Apple may pay annual dividend of up to $14.65 per share. Going by data from Friday, Apple's market value is about $546 billion.

]]>NewsMon, 19 Mar 2012 07:36:18 +0100Most people are yet to pay for an Apphttps://fudzilla.com/news/mobile/24860-most-people-are-yet-to-pay-for-an-app
https://fudzilla.com/news/mobile/24860-most-people-are-yet-to-pay-for-an-app

Download yes, pay for? Nah.

Most smartphone and tablet owners who download apps will still not pay for them. Pew Research Centre questioned 2,260 adults aged 18 and over and it found that 46 percent of those that have downloaded apps to a smartphone or tablet have paid for one or more of them.

This is the same as it was in during a similar survey in 2010 which means that people are still not confident to shell out money for Apps. Among those who decided to get the wallet out, 52 percent said the most they have ever spent is $5. Still, there are some buyers willing to pay more, with 17 percent saying they’ve spent $20 or more for a single app. Owners of tablets are more likely to pay for an app than those downloading to a smartphone. Furthermore, those with tablets are more likely to spend a greater amount on an app than those who buy an app for use on a smartphone.

The figures will make many developers wonder why they are in the business at all if it can't make them cash.

Call of Duty: Black Ops players on the PC will have dedicated servers to play on, but apparently Activision has ripped a page out of the Electronic Arts playbook and has moved to a server provider model, which will see GameServers.com as the exclusive provider of servers (both ranked and unranked) for Black Ops.

The news hit today that GameServers.com is already starting to take pre-orders for servers both ranked and unranked. In the U.S. players will be able to get a ranked Black Ops server for $14.95 per month or an unranked Black Ops server for .99 cents per slot with a 24-slot max.

The company is offering locations in Canada, Europe, Japan and Australia, so it would appear that they have a number of locations from which to serve up the Black Ops action for PC players. The announcement of the dedicated server provider program for Black Ops now could cast into doubt the possibility of public release of the server files to the general public.

Currently, no additional details have been released, but our sources tell us that with the prices that GameServers.com is charging, no one is getting rich on this offering. As another competing provider that we spoke with told us, “The cost of the servers and the bandwidth is, of course, high to run these types of FPS gaming servers; and at the pricing they are charging it is difficult to see how they are going to make much money offering it.”

Treyarch has claimed that the decision to go with an exclusive provider gives the company better control to deal with cheaters and offers better security. The rental servers will all offer those that purchase them the ability to kick, ban and configure a number of the settings. Ranked servers will have a set configuration that customers will be unable to modify.